# Besides “method”, what other styles of acting are there? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284 "2020-01-11T23:16:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/1 "2020-01-11T23:16:08Z")
I’ve heard of “method acting” which, if I understand correctly, is a style of acting where the actor tries to experience the emotions of the character, usually by actually experiencing some facets of the character’s life (such as by isolating themselves, or adopting an accent), and by staying in character throughout the filming. So, what other “types” of acting are there? I’ve never heard of others. Is there a style that would be the opposite of method, some sort of “just deliver the lines” instruction? As a mere watcher of acting, I can’t really think of any other styles to even imagine. What’s the straight dope? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/2 "2020-01-11T23:44:18Z")
Actually Mamet says that very thing “Just say the fucking lines you fucking cock. Don’t try and live in the moment. It’s my fucking job to make sure it all comes across. You just say the line you fucking walking bag of meat.” Well…something like that ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/3 "2020-01-12T00:23:36Z")
I recall reading somewhere that Spencer Tracy told a method actor to “just know your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/4 "2020-01-12T00:27:18Z")
Here’s four others: Classical Acting, The Chekhov Acting Technique, Meisner Acting Technique & Practical Aesthetics Acting Technique [Details here](https://www.projectcasting.com/tips-and-advice/acting-techniques/). ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/5 "2020-01-12T00:34:07Z")
I think method acting is in contrast to character acting. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/6 "2020-01-12T00:55:25Z")
Who was it? James Mason? Peter O’Toole? Harrison Ford? IIRC someone like that said their technique was, “Let’s pretend.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/7 "2020-01-12T01:07:34Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Who was it? James Mason? Peter O’Toole? Harrison Ford? IIRC someone like that said their technique was, “Let’s pretend.” It’s possible you’re thinking of this: > [@](#): > > My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting? > — Sir Laurence Olivier, (allegedly) on learning that Dustin Hoffman had remained awake for 72 hours in preparation for a scene in Marathon Man in which his character is sleep deprived. which I found on the [TVTropes page about Method acting](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/MethodActing) but have seen before elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/8 "2020-01-12T01:24:58Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Actually Mamet says that very thing > > “Just say the fucking lines you fucking cock. Don’t try and live in the moment. It’s my fucking job to make sure it all comes across. You just say the line you fucking walking bag of meat.” > > Well…something like that Mamet does say, in the introduction to [A Practical Handbook for the Actor](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Handbook-Actor-Melissa-Bruder/dp/0394744128): > [@](#): > > It would be fine if there were many great master teachers of acting, but there are not. Most acting teachers, unfortunately, are frauds, and they rely on your complicity to survive. This not only deprives you of positive training but stifles your greatest gift as an artist: your sense of truth. It is this sense of truth, a simplicity, and feelings of wonder and reverence— all of which you possess— that will revitalize the Theatre. How do you translate them onto the Stage? This book offers some wonderful, simple advice and suggestions. It is the best book on acting written in the last twenty years. The technical suggestions, finally, are reducible to a simple stoic philosophy: be what you wish to seem. It is an excellent, short synthesis of an acting course conducted by David Mamet and William H. Macy. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/9 "2020-01-12T01:33:43Z")
There is also the _Larry Storch School of Acting_ that Kelly Bundy attended. I’ll let myself out, no need to get pushy. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/10 "2020-01-12T10:32:42Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > There is also the _Larry Storch School of Acting_ that Kelly Bundy attended. If there was ever a dream couple of TV acting… ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/11 "2020-01-12T14:28:45Z")
With respect, I disagree with your explanation of method acting. Very, very few actors stay in character at all times, day and night. The fact that Val Kilmer remained in character as Jim Morrison throughout shooting (at least while on the set; I don’t know about off) and insisted on being addressed as “Jim” became well known precisely because it was unusual. (And, FWIW, many actors of my acquaintance thought it was ridiculous.) My understanding of method acting — and I’m prepared to be corrected on this — is that you find some experience in your own life when your emotions paralleled the ones your character is feeling in the scene and draw on that. For example, if your character has just learned that his wife has died, you remember how you felt when your dad died. You bring those emotions up and experience them again, this time as the character. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/12 "2020-01-12T19:26:02Z")
It’s my understanding that a lot of different techniques are lumped into “Method” that really aren’t. Or they are offshoots that evolved out of Method. Kind of like calling a therapist Freudian because you can draw a line ten steps back to Freud. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/13 "2020-01-12T22:05:42Z")
By no means a definitive explanation - but my own simplified description. Method acting tries to get you to feel how the character feels. Non-method acting tries to get you to behave how the character behaves. Another way of looking at it is Method works from the inside out, whereas non-Method works from the outside in. For example, Olivier is said to notate his lines in a way not unlike musical scoring, to indicate raising and lowering inflection, volume, pacing, etc. That is the very definition of outside in. Whereas a Method actor would work on the emotional underpinning of the scene, and the lines would come out however they came out. ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/14 "2020-01-13T00:49:47Z")
There is the possibly apocryphal anecdote about an exchange between Dustin Hoffman and Olivier: [here](https://mdtheatreguide.com/2014/05/the-10-best-stories-actors-tell-about-each-other/) > [@](#): > > During the filming of “Marathon Man,” Dustin Hoffman was supposed to play a man who had been up all night. And method actor that he is, he spent the night before shooting the scene awake. When he arrived on the set, his co-star Laurence Olivier asked why he looked so tired. Hoffman explained his approach. Olivier paused and then said, “Try acting, dear boy . . . It’s much easier.” There are several versions of this story around, but I ran across Hoffman himself telling it, so this must be the real version. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/15 "2020-01-13T20:32:25Z")
> [@Tinker\_Grey](#): > > There is the possibly apocryphal anecdote about an exchange between Dustin Hoffman and Olivier: [here](https://mdtheatreguide.com/2014/05/the-10-best-stories-actors-tell-about-each-other/) Post 7. Daniel Day-Lewis is known for really, _really_ getting into - and often staying in - character. When he was filming _The Last of the Mohicans_, the story goes, he carried his flintlock rifle around with him even after hours. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/16 "2020-01-14T16:21:53Z")
There’s Joey Tribiani “Smell the fart” acting. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/17 "2020-01-14T17:54:45Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > There’s Joey Trib\*\*iani “Smell the fart” acting. Watch and learn from the master: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c4YhwpiaKU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c4YhwpiaKU) ---
**Author:** ![atimnie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atimnie/32/11_2.png) [@atimnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atimnie)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/18 "2020-01-16T22:56:19Z")
_I recall reading somewhere that Spencer Tracy told a method actor to “just know your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.”_ Laurence Olivier put it a bit more tactfully to Dustin Hoffman. “Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?” ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/19 "2020-01-20T22:22:02Z")
Does anyone know if an old-school, non-method actor, like maybe Laurence Olivier, ever said anything to a young method actor such as, i dunno, Dustin Hoffman on the subject? ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-method-what-other-styles-of-acting-are-there/846284/20 "2020-01-21T01:23:01Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > Does anyone know if an old-school, non-method actor, like maybe Laurence Olivier, ever said anything to a young method actor such as, i dunno, Dustin Hoffman on the subject? I heard it happened once, in 1960, for about 20 minutes. Rio by Duran Duran was playing in the background.